[sun surfer]

Here are my three nominations:


-The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

This is a recent novel (2017) about a boy in Ireland born to a rural teen girl out of wedlock and adopted by an eccentric Dublin couple, who grows up and spends decades coming to know himself and his country, taking place from the 1940's to now. It has an astounding 4.47 rating on Goodreads out of over 30,000 reviews, which is an extremely high rating especially for a novel with a lot of reviews. In fact, I think this is the highest rated book I've ever seen of those I've been interested in. Goodreads, 582 pages, Ireland

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

-Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon

This is a novel about 'the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing' at a 'run-down West Virginia track', that also has to do with love and romance. It won the National Book Award for Fiction and was a nominee for both the Orange Prize for Fiction longlist and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Goodreads, 2010, 304 pages, United States

A brilliant novel that captures the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing, where trainers, jockeys, grooms and grifters vie for what little luck is offered at a run-down West Virginia track .

Tommy Hansel has a plan: run four horses, all better than they look on paper, at long odds at Indian Mound Downs, then grab the purse -- or cash a bet -- and run before anyone’s the wiser. At his side is Maggie Koderer, who finds herself powerfully drawn to the gorgeous, used up animals of the cheap track. She also lands in the cross-hairs of leading trainer Joe Dale Bigg. But as news of Tommy’s plan spreads, from veteran groom Medicine Ed, to loan shark Two-Tie, to Kidstuff the blacksmith, it’s Maggie, not Tommy or the handlers of legendary stakes horse Lord of Misrule, who will find what's valuable in a world where everything has a price.

-Endless Love by Scott Spencer

This book has a(n in)famous film adaptation, which I remember watching as a pre-teen child and not having a clue what the fuss and passion were all about. It is a National Book Award Finalist and 'remains perhaps the most powerful novel ever written about young love'. The book concerns an intense romance and obsession between David and Jade that becomes forbidden and then dangerous. The New York Times called it 'one of the best books of the year'. One of the top Goodreads reviews advises, 'Don't knock it 'til you've read it--the movie doesn't hold a candle to the book. Scott Spencer blew me away.' Another top Goodreads review states, 'Absolutely a literary masterpiece, written with precision and pure talent by an author who defies description, a writer who can create character, thought, situation, depth, and who has a true sense of time and place. And above all, he can create passion.' Goodreads, 425 pages, 1979, United States

One of the most celebrated novels of its time, Endless Love remains perhaps the most powerful novel ever written about young love. Riveting, compulsively readable, and ferociously sexual, Endless Love tells the story of David Axelrod and his overwhelming love for Jade Butterfield.

David's and Jade's lives are consumed with each other; their rapport, their desire, their sexuality take them further than they understand. And when Jade's father suddenly banishes David from the house, he fantasizes the forgiveness his rescue of the family will bring and he sets a "perfectly safe" fire to their house. What unfolds is a nightmare, a dark world in which David's love is a crime and a disease, a world of anonymous phone calls, crazy letters, and new fears — and the inevitable and punishing pursuit of the one thing that remains most real to him: his endless love for Jade and her family.